Despite Parliament clearing the T-Bill for the formation of an independent Telangana state, Andhra Pradesh will vote for 42 Lok Sabha seats and the 294 Assembly constituencies as a unified state in two phases on April 30 and May 7.
The bifurcation will see the birth of Telangana-- the country’s 29th state--at the appointed date on June 2.
However, despite going to the polls, with the results scheduled to be declared on May 16, the state is unlikely to have an elected government or Chief Minister till the appointed date. But according to the Chief Election Commissioner, there should no issue in dividing the state after a unified election process.
“All the MLAs, who are elected (on May 16), will be deemed to be elected MLAs of the new state after the appointed day(of bifurcation). It will be a seamless exercise,” CEC V S Sampath said, in response to a pointed query on the issue.
However, the EC has scheduled the polling for the 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 Assembly constituencies, which falls in the Telangana region, for May 30 and the remaining 25 LS seats and 175 Assembly segments of the residual state of Andhra Pradesh for May 7.
In a way, the EC is conforming to Parliament decision to divide the state, whatever the Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrashekhar Rao and his son K T Rama Rao may say in this regard.
Sampath, on his part said, “We’ll not hold election to (two) states, we’ll conduct elections for Assembly constituencies.
“(Since) the term of Andhra Pradesh Assembly comes to an end on June 2, the EC is mandated to hold elections, we’ve nothing to do with the appointed day fixed by the Centre.”